Citation

Smirnova MN, Bogdanova A, Zhu Z, Smirnov NN. Transportmetrica B: Transp. Dyn. 2017; 5(1): 111-127.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/21680566.2016.1142402

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper presents viscoelastic modelling of traffic flows briefly first and then shows numerical simulation results of ring traffic flow sensitivity to model parameters, such as viscoelasticity, average vehicle length, braking distance, and characteristic length used to define relaxation time. It was found that traffic flow pattern formation is dramatically sensitive to viscoelasticity and fundamental diagram which is explicitly impacted by average vehicle length and braking distance, implying that drivers' self-organisation ability is significant in determining the intensity of traffic wave interaction. Since the decrease of characteristic length can lead to a relevant change of traffic relaxation time, the length can play a sensitive role in changing traffic wave structures. Optimisation of traffic regulations is necessary for the well operation of a segmental or ring road.

Language: en

Keywords

average vehicular length; braking distance; traffic flow sensitivity; Viscoelasticity